Reuters – U.S. video game sales rose 10 percent in February to $1.47 billion, led again by Nintendo’s blockbuster Wii console, as gaming continued to show resilience despite an economic downturn that has sapped consumer spending.
Reuters – German retail chain Galeria Kaufhof will pull violent films and video games from its shelves in response to the school shooting last week that shocked and horrified the country.
AP – The video game industry continued to defy the recession in February, posting double-digit year-over-year growth with Nintendo Co.’s popular Wii gaming system leading the way.
Macworld.com – Say what you will about Psystar, the Florida-based company thatâ??s been churning out unauthorized Mac clones like Hollywood churns out crappy movies based on video games, but these guys have chutzpah. Even in the midst of a lengthy legal disagreement with Apple, Psystar still manages to find the time and the guts to release new models of its Open Computer line.
PC World – The online gaming subsidiary of Chinese Web portal Sohu.com filed for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Tuesday in a possible step toward offering its games in the U.S.
PC World – A lot of you really, truly dug Bioware’s Mass Effect. I didn’t. That is, I didn’t dig it as enthusiastically. In fact I scored it 60 points on PC World’s 100 point scale, which translates as “slightly better than average.” Not a bad score. Certainly not a negative review. Regardless, it incited 1,823 “no” votes against just 202 “yes” votes in our admittedly easily skewed thumbs-up-or-down recommendation system.
Reuters – Marvel Entertainment and Gazillion Entertainment have struck a licensing deal to develop massively multiplayer online games based on Marvel characters.
NewsFactor – There are some businesses and organizations that seem to be not only surviving the economic downturn, but even thriving: Liquor stores, movie theaters, libraries, and now online video games.
PC Magazine – Nvidia said Tuesday that it has licensed its PhysX physics technology to developers for use with the Sony PlayStation 3.
PC World – Will they or won’t they, the old saw predictable as death and taxes. The PlayStation 3 costs $400 in a U.S. retail economy that’s still plummeting as unemployment pushes past 8.1 percent. Not an enviable position to be in, especially not when your competition (Nintendo as much as Microsoft, whatever the executive bigwigs claim) is priced so dramatically below you.